Author Archives
Independent researcher and writer
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Plato’s Diotima as a Symptom of Psychosis by Stuart Dean
As I mentioned in my January 30, 2016 post, Grace Jantzen in Foundations of Violence makes a compelling case that Diotima is a fictional figure. She does not, however, adequately distinguish her from the poetizing female figures Parmenides and Boethius… Read More ›
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Caroline Schelling on Birth & Death by Stuart Dean
Of the many letters Caroline wrote to her lifelong friend Luise, one of the most intense (the 57th Letter) dates from seven years after the 4th Letter discussed in my last post. By then both were married; only a few… Read More ›
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Caroline Schelling’s 4th Letter by Stuart Dean
Caroline Schelling (‘Caroline’) wrote the fourth letter of hers that survives (the ‘4th Letter’) on October 7, 1778, shortly after she had turned 15, to a girl she met at boarding school who was to become her lifelong friend (Luise)…. Read More ›
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The German Diotima by Stuart Dean
The title of the essay Über die Diotima (hereafter, the ‘Essay’ (translation here (pp400-419))) by Friedrich Schlegel (hereafter, ‘Friedrich’) suggests it is focused on Plato’s portrayal of Diotima in the Symposium. That portrayal, though, is but a starting point for… Read More ›
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The First Performance of Antigone: Phaenarete’s View by Stuart Dean
The first performance of the play Antigone was in Athens around 440 BCE. It is possible that Phaenarete, the mother of Socrates, was in the audience. By then she was certainly practicing medicine and perhaps had been doing so for a… Read More ›
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Artemis As Artemisia: Ancient Female Spirituality & Modern Medicine by Stuart Dean
The 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded in part to a Chinese woman (Tu) for her identification and isolation to treat malaria of a chemical known as Artemisinin. The name of that chemical derives from the fact that it… Read More ›
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The Mother of Socrates: Priestess, Pharmacist, Obstetrician by Stuart Dean
Because the dates for the life of Socrates are certain, it is safe to conclude his mother, Phaenarete, was born about 500 BCE. She seems to have lived well past menopause and thus was certainly alive to see the start… Read More ›
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E Pluribus Unum: The Woman From Africa by Stuart Dean
She’s his only savior. African in origin, her figure bears witness to her homeland: her hair twisted in dreads, her lips full, her color dark, her chest broad with pendulous breasts, her stomach flat and firm, her legs slender, her… Read More ›
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Why Is Pizza Round? The Black Goddess of Rome by Stuart Dean
The poem Moretum (discussed in my last post) narrates the preparation of a meal that can be characterized in modern English as ‘pizza.’ Round flatbread is baked; to go on it, a cheese spread is mixed. The details of the… Read More ›
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E Pluribus Unum and The Unrecognized Black Goddess of Rome by Stuart Dean
E pluribus unum (‘EPU’), which first began to be used by the U.S. in the 18th century, comes from a poem entitled Moretum that until well into the 19th century was generally attributed to Vergil. During those centuries Latin would… Read More ›
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Sappho, Frankincense, and Female Spirituality by Stuart Dean
White Howjary Frankincense (photo: Trygve Harris (www.enfleurage.com)) Sappho is the first Greek author to attest to the usage of frankincense. The word she uses to refer to it (libanos) is what comparative linguists call a ‘loan word,’ in this case… Read More ›
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Aphrodite in Bagram Afghanistan & The ‘Friend of the World’ of the Flower Ornament Scripture by Stuart Dean
In the 1930s two ancient storerooms in Afghanistan near what is now the Bagram US Air Base were discovered by French archaeologists and unsealed for the first time in about two thousand years. They contained artifacts from all over the… Read More ›
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Sappho’s Prescription For A Healthy Heart & the Taoist/Buddhist Concept of Forget (忘)
A two line fragment of Sappho’s poetry (S.120) reads: But I am not one to keep venting my anger: Rather I let some things in my heart go unspoken Sappho’s word choices here make this as difficult as any of… Read More ›
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Buddhas In Snowflakes, Enlightenment In A Bathtub
This year’s Tibet House Benefit Concert coincided with a snowstorm in Manhattan and though snow is not uncommon in Manhattan (especially this past season), it is particularly associated with Tibet and its high, perennially snow covered peaks. The timing of… Read More ›
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Poppaea & Paul: Was This About A Female Challenge To Male Privilege? by Stuart Dean
As suggested in my first post on Poppaea it is likely she knew one or more of the women Paul refers to in Romans. Of particular interest is the woman Paul refers to as his ‘mother’ (Romans 16:13). If… Read More ›
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Astrology and Its Relevance to the Jewish (and Christian) Belief of Poppaea by Stuart Dean
As a follow up to my last post on Poppaea Sabina, I want to focus on Poppaea’s interest in astrology, one of the few facts about her that can be confirmed independently of the hostile (and hence questionable) depiction… Read More ›
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Poppaea Sabina: A Victim of Domestic Violence– But Why Does That Matter Now? by Stuart Dean
It has been nearly 2000 years since the Roman emperor Nero kicked his pregnant and sick wife, Poppaea Sabina (hereafter Poppaea), killing her and what was probably the near full term fetus she was carrying. That Poppaea was murdered deliberately… Read More ›
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Sappho and Ancient India: The Connection and its Implications by Stuart Dean
Sappho was a metrical virtuoso. Many of her fragments survive because they were quoted solely to illustrate otherwise unattested metrical forms. Indeed, there is no precedent or parallel in the poetry of other ancient Greeks for both the range of… Read More ›
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The Sphere: A Symbol of Ancient Greek Female Spirituality by Stuart Dean
Originally, in ancient Greek, ‘sphere’ simply meant ‘ball.’ Though its grammatical gender varied, it was primarily a feminine noun. It is in that sense and with that gender that it bounces into Western literature in the episode of the Odyssey… Read More ›
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She Alone Was There In The Beginning: Nature Creatrix by Stuart Dean
I concluded my last post by suggesting that “Creator” in the Declaration of Independence (DI) should have been ‘Creatrix.’ Though ‘Creator’ imbues the DI with a bit of quasi-scriptural authority, the possessive pronoun “their” before it effectively limits the full… Read More ›
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The Declaration of Independence: A Misogynistic Mash-up of Greek Philosophy and Roman Law
Regardless of political identity in America there seems to be an almost religious reverence for the Declaration of Independence (DI). By far the most quoted sentence from it is the one that begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident,… Read More ›
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Contraception, Christianity & Law by Stuart Dean
Notwithstanding the widespread belief that contraception is not consistent with the principles of Christianity, there is no basis for it. On the contrary, contraception was closely associated with early Christianity. Matthew 19:12 is the only passage quoting Christ that is… Read More ›
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Before Misogyny Contaminated Theology by Stuart Dean
Compared to many issues related to ancient history, it is relatively easy to identify not just where and when misogyny began to contaminate theology, but the person primarily responsible for it: Plato, who lived in Athens in the late fifth… Read More ›
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The Physician Luke, the Virgin Mary and the Poet Sappho by Stuart Dean
Since my last contribution to Feminism and Religion my interest in Sappho and her influence has led me to a detailed analysis of Luke 1:27-45 (hereafter, the “Conception Story”). I want to share two observations from that analysis that I… Read More ›
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Jesus, the Woman at the Well, and the Meaning of ‘Man’ by Stuart Dean
The story in the Gospel of John of the encounter Jesus has with a Samaritan woman (hereafter, ‘the Samaritan’) at Jacob’s well (4:7-29) has attracted considerable scholarly attention. For an overview of some of the interpretive issues raised by it… Read More ›
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Sappho & Early Christianity by Stuart Dean
Given modern perceptions of Sappho it is, I am sure, going to seem at a minimum counterintuitive that early Christians would have had an interest in Sappho. The issue is not helped by the fact that a story about Saint… Read More ›
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